Here’s a previously neglected market niche: women who go one place to buy and another place to sell high-end luxury bags. Neglected no more, however, with the launch of Rebag, both online and in bricks-and-mortar. Instead of buying direct from manufacturers, Rebag procures its inventory from owners of luxury handbags.

Shiraz Akmal, a 45-year-old entrepreneur previously with DreamWorks Animation, has taken that DreamWorks experience and reshaped it with a very personal mission that he says could help revitalize America’s malls.

Online marketplaces — websites where many different merchants offer their wares — are perhaps retail’s biggest success story. According to Internet Retailer, total global online retail sales for 2017 were $2.56 trillion, which accounted for slightly over 11 percent of total sales; 60 percent of those ecommerce sales, $1.55 trillion, were made on the world’s top 75 online marketplaces — a 34 percent increase from the year before.

What does it take to develop a successful digital commerce business? Download the FitForCommerce report to learn how to develop the right OMS strategy, build a high-performing team and select the right technologies to stay competitive.

Companies working in ecommerce and digital abound, but some technology providers are bucking that trend. In just two years, Clobotics has gone from launch to supporting several global retail and manufacturer brands, enabling artifical intelligence technology to help traditional enterprises do more.

It hasn’t happened in retail yet, but the growing number of applications running on servers kept at individual stores are exposing retailers to a new vulnerability that hackers could exploit. That’s the conclusion of security expert Ian Eyberg, founder and CEO of NanoVMs, a provider of server protection that uses “unikernels.”

NRF is proud to provide our members with the online Retail Buying Guide to search for trusted vendors, products and services in the retail industry. Our guide is a user-friendly forum designed to bring suppliers and purchasers together. You can search by keyword, location, company name or category. Available whenever you need it, the Retail Buying Guide makes it easy to locate products and professional services geared to the retail industry. Click here to visit the online Retail Buying Guide! To advertise, please contact Sarah Allen for more information.

For anyone still contemplating the benefits of legal marijuana, MassRoots has sweetened the pot. The leading technology platform for the regulated cannabis industry introduced its WeedPass rewards program for cannabis users in late September.

When the buzz from Nashville includes mention of country stars and food, it typically means the opening of another celebrity-backed restaurant and/or bar. But things are a little bit different for Brad Paisley and his wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, who are planning to open a free grocery in conjunction with Brad Paisley’s Nashville-based alma mater, Belmont University.

Champion Athleticwear is celebrating its 100th anniversary by taking new ground. In addition to the opening of a 4,900-square-foot storefront on Broadway in New York’s famed SoHo shopping district in August, the brand opened its third U.S. location in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood in September.

From a peek inside Walmart's next-generation tech incubator to an infographic on Halloween shopping behavior, over the past year NRF featured retail’s top brands and executives and covered a range of retail issues and insights on a variety of platforms. As 2018 comes to an end, here’s a look back at the most popular stories from NRF’s blog, the Retail Gets Real podcast and NRF events.

Island Pacific has over 40 years of experience providing software solutions to over 600 global multichannel retailers. Island Pacific SmartSuite is available as a comprehensive, integrated system, or as feature-rich, stand-alone modules. From the creation of initial plans, inventory management, business intelligence, Unified commerce, mobile and fixed counter POS. All modules interact seamlessly, ensuring data integrity and a single view of information driving business growth and consistent Return on investment

State and local workforce development boards receive approximately $10 billion in federal funds annually to train and connect over 20 million youth and adults with employment opportunities. However, these boards remain one of the least known and most underutilized resources among retailers. Read more about how the NRF Foundation is helping increase collaboration.

Retail Deals

Xcel Brands Inc., a media and consumer products company, has selected BlueCherry Enterprise Suite of cloud-based solutions by CGS, a provider of business applications, to provide end-to-end capabilities for apparel, footwear and consumer lifestyle brands.

rue21, a leading fast-fashion specialty retailer, has selected Kibo, a leader in cloud commerce, to provide multiple fulfillment options for its customers moving into 2019, including 'buy-online pickup in-store.'

On a mission to ease the discomfort of her children’s sensitive skin issues, Jacqueline Sacks, wife of PayPal’s David Sacks, has launched Saint Haven, a luxurious line of sustainable essentials that includes soft clothing for women, babies, toddler and children.

More than ever the burden of improving revenue, reducing organizational costs, boosting efficiency and therefore becoming more cost effective is the responsibility of the retail operations team. With limited resources and money, Operations need to find better ways of doing business to increase productivity, improve communications, and implement corporate directives across the entire retail environment.

Rally Cure, beverage company and maker of the electrolyte beverage Rally, announced its flagship product is now available in 200 H-E-B stores across the state of Texas.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery New York, an immersive coffee experience that celebrates the heritage of roasting and the craft of coffee, opened its doors on December 14 in New York’s meatpacking district. This location marks Starbucks’ fourth Roastery and second location in the United States.

Office Depot Inc., a leading omnichannel provider of business services and supplies, products and technology solutions, is now a certified installation partner for Google and Nestsmart home devices. Customers can buy the products from Office Depot as well as have them installed and connected to their other smart home devices.